exploring past visions of possible futures

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Response : If Christopher Johnson returns, he will return with all his prawn beings and take over the earth. The prawns enslave humans and require them to make cat food or die. Christopher Johnson reunites with Wikus only to remember that Wikus knocked him out, concluding with his decision to make Wikus’s wife and the rest of his family as prawns. Wikus agrees because there’s nothing else left of his human civilization. Wikus becomes more like prawns mentally and realizes that the human race deserves to be enslaved for all the wrong they have committed. My whole passage reminded me of a quote from Dawn that destroying what’s left of the human civilization wouldn’t make it better but different and different is what humanity needed to live prosperous without any evil need for power and this human/pawn civilization lived forever. Pawns turned humans into pawns when ever they felt they were worthy enough.

Dawn Quote of Jdahya and Lilith in chapter 5, Part 1 Womb.

“And you think destroying what was left of our cultures will make us better?”

The Movie District 9 had a few similarities with some of the books we read in class. One of the similarities it had to Caves of Steel was the fact that the aliens from the movie had their own place to stay, the same with the spacers. Humans and the aliens from the movie didn’t get along well with one another the same as how they didn’t get along with the spacers in the book. It took one man named Wikus van de Merwe when he was becoming an alien due to exposure to an alien substance to understand the way humans were treating the aliens and actually grew to accept them and let them live their lives in peace. Elijah from Caves of Steel also grew to accept spacers when he was partnered up with Olivaw and grew to understand Olivaw better. The movie can also be compared with the book Dawn. In the book, the only way to travel to different rooms is if you were an Oankali. In the movie: District 9, the only way to use an alien weapon was if you too were an alien. Lilith from Dawn and Wikus from District 9 were turning into one of the creatures slowly, and they were able to use anything the aliens had with ease. In some ways the movie also had some similarities to the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep as well. In the book, the bounty hunters were getting rid of the androids that were coming in from another planet. In the movie, there were soldiers who wanted to eradicate the aliens. Lastly, there was one character by the name of Rick Deckard from the book who started to grow to accept androids.

“And you don’t understand us at all. You never will, really, though you’ll be given much more information about us.”

“Then put me back to sleep, dammit, and choose some-one you think is brighter! I never wanted this job!”

It was silent for several seconds. Finally, it said “Do you really believe I was disparaging your intelligence?”

She glared at it, refusing to answer. “I thought not. Your children will know us, Lilith. You never will. (Family II, The end of Chapter 12.)

I think this passage is very important because it shows that Lilith has no control of what the aliens to her. It also shows the aliens intentions to harvest a human for their own. This passage also shows how resilient Lilith is towards the aliens that she will not give in to their demands even though she clearly has no say. This passage is right after Paul tried to have her way with her she defends him, Lilith is full of empathy. The aliens clearly don’t care about her but have a purpose for her.

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler is a great novel that reminded me of the 2012 film Prometheus when the reader realizes that protagonist, has been kept in confinement for two hundred and fifty four years. Reminded me of how the crew in Prometheus the passengers had traveled for two years to be awakened like it was nothing. Lilith didn’t even realize she was kept for that long. Another cool moment was when the aliens removed her cancer made me think if they had some advanced machinery like they did in the movie Prometheus. The novel also reminded me of the 2010 film Shutter Island, it’s also a novel in which the main character is distorted from a past event that he starts too see things that aren’t there. Dawn and the Shutter Island novel had kind of the similar beginning. I was really amazed by imagery in this novel best book so far that didn’t put me to sleep.

Octavia Butler’s novel Dawn is a very terrifying outlook on what could happen to the human race. “Humanicide” is becoming more of a threat as destructive technologies keep advancing, and more countries are gaining access to nuclear weapons. What stood out for me was the social commentary Butler added to her writing. This novel was published in 1987 during the midst of the Cold War. The not so subtle hint at total nuclear devastation spoke measures back then, and it resonates even stronger now and in the near future. The actions of the Oankali mirrored the atrocities committed during the times of slavery in the United States. The Oankali treated the humans disgustingly, ignoring cries for clothes and depriving them of their culture. This novel holds a lot of reflection on the past and present times.

In the novel of “Do androids dream of electric sheep” a major theme is empathy. In the beginning of the novel Deckard questions the empathy he has for his electric sheep he cares for it but feels that his sheep doesn’t have any connection towards him. Deckard’s job is to retire androids it’s a civil job that doesn’t pay enough for the proper animal to own at home. Deckard quickly learns that humans can have no empathy and become something else that isn’t human like his partner Phil Resch who shot an android because he needed too. Deckard also learns that androids can develop empathy for example; when Rachel Rosen slept with him to prove that there’s more to androids than meets the eye.

She went on, “Anyway, Lizzy was always talking about how there’d come a day and people had to get together. She said it was all the fault of the Spacers because they wanted to keep Earth weak and decadent. That was one of her favorite words, “ decadent.’

I found this quote in the middle of Chapter 14, Baley reminisces about his marriage with Jessie and her beliefs. I found this quote very interesting because it sets a theme of a human and robot relationship, of how it exposes Jessie’s beliefs to Baley. There’s a thin line between robots and humans, and through this quote its pretty obvious robots get blame for everything wrong with earth. The story continues to expose characters being prejudice towards robots. Later on the reader finds out that Jessie was part of mediavelist cult. Baley basically analyzes his wife’s resentment and frustrations.

Assignments for next week:
1. Read pp. 1-100 Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel
2. Write a ~250 word reading journal around the question of differences between CoS and our own world. What makes those differences interesting?
3. Create an account on the OpenLab if you don’t already have one
4. Join our course – https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/scifi/

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.